Creating Project Baselines in PLM

When people think of Configuration Management (CM) or Change Management, they often think of engineering design data. At IpX, we focus on elevating CM out of Engineering’s shadow and expand it across the enterprise. In our courseware, we exemplify this by applying CM2 to the operating standards and core administrative procedures. But it doesn’t have to stop there.

Minerva PLM has an interesting video showcasing how their product manages the project (not product) hierarchy. This is a fantastic way to list all deliverables and their dependencies without having to be fluent in project management principles, work breakdown structures, or Gantt charts (although you’ll see some definite similarities). More importantly, Minerva explains the nature of having multiple project “BOM views” that represent different project stakeholders. In the video, they specifically talk about how to maintain traceability of deliverables for regulatory bodies. Anyone in a regulated industry understands the importance of meeting those deliverables. If you don’t, go talk to your Compliance Officer (or equivalent) and ask them how much they hate Excel. And, as the project changes, traceability of deliverables is maintained and change status accounting can be applied to the project.

Creating a project baseline hierarchy is a clever implementation of PLM and a beautiful expansion of CM2 principles.
Learn more about elevating your configuration management processes by viewing IpX’s CM2 courses and how to automate those processes with Minerva PLM.